The broader market was mostly positive on Friday as Wall Street ended the week on a high note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed about 125 points, while the S&P 500 Index added about 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite settled at a negative flatline.
Here's how the market settled to close out the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.16% or +8.60 points to 5,222.68
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.32% or +124.56 points to 39,512.32
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -0.03% or -5.40 points to 16,340.87
For the Week:
Wall Street ended the week in the green as market participants were encouraged by fresh economic data signaling that the Federal Reserve may have room to introduce interest rate cuts some time this year. The Dow gained about 2%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each added more than 1%.
In the News:
Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) shares popped nearly 100% on Friday after the drugmaker announced it has signed a multibillion dollar deal with Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) to co-commercialize its COVID vaccine and develop COVID-flu combination shots.
"Our new partnership combines Novavax's proprietary recombinant protein and nanoparticle technologies, Matrix™ adjuvant and R&D expertise with Sanofi's world-class leadership in launching and commercializing innovative vaccines. Together, we can broaden access to both our COVID-19 vaccine and our adjuvant to ensure more individuals can benefit from the protection vaccines can provide," said Novavax CEO John C. Jacobs in a statement. "Novavax is now in a stronger position to refocus our efforts on leveraging our technology platform and novel adjuvant in R&D and pipeline expansion to help advance our mission of developing life-saving vaccines to fight infectious diseases."
In Economic News:
The University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment reading for May fell lower as consumers become more concerned about inflation over the last few weeks. The month's preliminary reading came in at 67.4, dropping from April's final print of 77.2.
"This 10 index-point decline is statistically significant and brings sentiment to its lowest reading in about six months," said Joanne Hsu, director of Surveys of Consumers, in a statement."While consumers had been reserving judgment for the past few months, they now perceive negative developments on a number of dimensions. They expressed worries that inflation, unemployment and interest rates may all be moving in an unfavorable direction in the year ahead."
Market Newcomers:
Oklo (NYSE: OKLO), Sam Altman's advanced nuclear fission company, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called AltC Acquisition Corp -- which was founded and led by Altman.
Oklo is focused on commercializing nuclear fission -- the reaction the fuels nuclear power -- with goals to sell the energy to end users like governments and tech companies to power technologies including artificial intelligence.
Zeekr (NYSE: ZK), a Chinese electric vehicle maker, priced its initial public offering at $21 per share (the top of its range) and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ZK on Friday.
"Through developing and offering next-generation premium BEVs and technology-driven solutions, we aspire to lead the electrification, intelligentization and innovation of the automotive industry," the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).